Lulworth Skipper

The weather has not been brilliant but it has still been a good spring for birding. Here we are nearly half way through June and there are still good birds turning up. Last year it all seemed to dry up towards the end of May and Dave and I switched over to concentrate on Butterflies for the summer. The problem is, that this has left outstanding business for us. Forty eight butterflies seen last year but another ten to go to get the full set.

I should have been reporting Large Blue in the bag but unfortunately a six hour two hundred and fifty mile round trip to Collard Hill on Monday left us empty handed, despite one seen flying there the day before. Enthusiasm undaunted we headed of today for Ballard Down near Swanage to look for the Lulworth Skipper. A slightly more acceptable five hour two hundred mile round trip. At least this time we were successful.

I don't even attempt to explain to anyone why I would want to sit in traffic for five or six hours to see a butterfly that I then have difficulty telling from a similar one that I can find half a mile from home. I think it's something about grown up train spotting.

We parked at the village of Ulwell and walked the short distance up onto the lower slopes of Ballard Down. Even at nine in the morning there were lots of butterflies on the wing, Large Skippers, Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Meadow Brown, Dingy Skippers, Small Heath, and Dave even found a couple of Green Hairstreaks. But, no Lulworth Skippers.

Large Skipper - close but its no Lulworth

Large Skipper - forewing with diagnostic lighter panels and distinct dark sex brands for the male 

Fortunately a couple of locals came to our help and pointed us in the right direction to find the Lulworths. A short walk and we found our first specimen. Smaller and darker than the other "orange" skippers and with other diagnostic features but you have to look closely. These pictures are all of males. I didn't see a female or if I did I failed to photograph it, which is sad, as the colours and markings are more distinct on the female. Does this mean a return trip?

Lulworth Skipper - darker colour especially the males and sex brands less ditinctive

Lulworth Skipper - showing "cresent of rays" in lighter wing panels - more distinct on female

Lulworth Skipper - plain pale underside.

Lulworth Skipper

As the day warmed up the butterflies became more active. We were on a sixty degree slope and it became harder and harder to keep up with their rapid movement. I had intended to photograph all the other butterflies we could see but in the end it just got too hot and we retreated in search of a cold drink. I missed some beautiful Adonis Blue specimens and then Large Whites and Orange Tips down near where we had parked the car but here are a couple of others that were flying.

Brown Argus

Dingy Skipper

Small Heath

Forty Nine up but there are still a lot of miles to do. I can see that this is going to require a bit of manipulation of our future family holiday plans.

Hudsonian Whimbrel

I am not keen on Twitches but when a Mega turns up in your patch you don't really want to miss out on it. So today I picked up Dave and we headed off to Pagham Harbour in the hope of seeing the reported Hudsonian Whimbrel before the big crowds started to turn up.

We decided not to risk the Church Norton car park and instead parked up near the visitors centre and walked down the side of the harbour to the hide. You might get in the car park but if the crowds turned up you wouldn't get out.

You always have your doubts when something like this is reported but it was the genuine article and all credit to George Kinnard who found and identified it.

Apologies for my pictures, the bird was a bit distant when we got there and gradually moved further away as the tide came in.

Hudsonian Whimbrel

Paler head with more distinctive marking

The head is paler than the Eurasian Whimbrel with stronger contrast between the almost white  supercillium and the very dark head and eye stripes.

Underwing appears to be a light brown with distinct barring. The Eurasian would be a white base colour.

No white cigar shape on the back

All brown back

The key identifiers are the lack of a white rump or cigar shaped white mark on the  Hudsonian Whimbrel's back. Slight variations in size and colour are harder to spot unless it is standing alongside an Eurasian bird.


There was not much else about but on the way back to the visitors centre we stopped to photograph a pair of Great Crested Grebes that were out on the Long Pool with their two young. In the early days the chicks sit nestled on the mothers back under the protection of her feathers whilst the male collects food and feeds them.

Father brings food

Safe under their mothers protection

A great afternoons birding. The Twitch wasn't too big and it was nice to meet up with a few old faces. It would be great to go back and get some better pictures but I think that it will be a few days before it quietens down a bit.

Red-necked Phalarope

Yesterday was a bit of a mixed bag. A short seawatch at Selsey Bill delivered one Gannet and a couple of Terns. Fortunately there was a small flock of House Martins gathering mud for nests that helped relieve the boredom.

House Martin

I made a couple of stops at the Ferry Pool to look for the Black-winged Stilt. It was there both times but right at the back of the pool and beyond the range of the camera. The pool held a good selection of the usual birds but nothing really close enough for a decent picture. The Greenshank below is probably the best of the record shots.

Greenshank

The day looked a bit of a washout until, when cooking dinner at 19.30, an alert came through for a Red-necked Phalarope on Widewater Lagoon. I had seen one on the Ferry Pool only four days ago but as with most sightings at that location it was too far away for a picture. Widewater is much smaller and usually offers much closer views. I abandoned the cooking and made my way over to Shoreham to join the gathering band of local birders.

Scope views were excellent but in the gathering gloom picture opportunities were limited. They are not brilliant but these are the only pictures I have of this species.

Red-necked Phalarope

The bird looked as though it was going to roost for the night so I was up before dawn and over at Widewater by 0500, but it was a wasted trip. There was no sign of the Phalarope.

Can't complain though. I am now down to a shortlist of just six birds that I have seen but failed to photograph.

Dusky Warbler and Hume's Leaf Warbler - Good views but just too fast for me to get in the camera's viewfinder and focus on them.

Arctic Skua  and Green-winged Teal - too far away

Woodcock - I had a picture but didn't think it was good enough so deleted it. Bad mistake.

White Stork - I was too busy watching the bird and forgot to take a picture.

Who needs a year list when faced with this challenge?

Red-footed Falcon

I went to see the Red-footed Falcon at Barcombe Mills today. After a week of mediocre photography I was really hoping for some good pictures but your options are usually limited if there is any form of twitch going on and this would be a popular bird.

I was surprised then to find only one other birder, Mick Davis, on site when I arrived. We spent about fifteen minutes waiting for the falcon to start flying. I was not very optimistic but then it did a flyby, no more than twenty metres from us, and my spirits were raised. Better still it then flew back and landed in a tree and appeared to be checking us out.

What an opportunity

Female Red-footed Falcon

It then relocated to another tree and seemed happy to pose again.

It was all over in five minutes with the Falcon flying off across the field. People had started to gather and whilst I was sure that it would be back and that there would be other chances I didn't stay. I had my pictures and I doubted that I would be able to improve on them.

Ravens

A recent holiday with the family in North Devon proved to be very enjoyable, if just a bit frustrating as far as bird watching went.

I had great plans - a detour on the way down to see the Purple Heron and Red-footed Falcon, a trip to Lundy Island giving me a four hour sea watch and a chance to see the Puffins, and a couple of walks planned for locations with Wood Warblers. If I was really lucky and got a few hot days I might also get an early High Brown Fritillary.

Needless to say, it did not quite happen as planned. We were late leaving due to a hairdressers appointment that I had not factored in (not mine) and I had to abandon the detour. The trip to Lundy was great but I only saw a couple of Gannets and a few Guillemots on the boat trips and the Puffins were too far away for a photograph. I did one of the Wood Warbler walks without seeing any Wood Warblers and then when I went to my banker site at Watersmeet it was so crowded that I couldn't even get into the car park.

Still, there's always something to look at and in flight shots of the Ravens and Fulmars from the local cliffs proved to be one of the best attractions.

Raven

and with a tasty morsel of food!

Raven

Fulmar

Fulmar

Plenty of Grey Wagtails about

Grey Wagtail

and juvenile Grey Wagtails

and even younger Grey Wagtails

Linnet

Rock Pipits in the coastal steams

A Whitethroat

A juvenile Warbler - probably a Chiffchaff

and just for the record a very distant  and heavily cropped shot of a Puffin

It's not the raft of excellent photographs that I had hoped to come home with but it is the record of the birds seen on my holiday.